Problems and prospects of Indonesian films
Problems and prospects of Indonesian films
By M. M. S. Marthawienata
In conjunction with the National Film Day on March 30, The Jakarta Post prepared the following three articles on foreign (American) films' domination over local ones, the prospects of national film industry, and the steps required to face new challenges, including stiffer competition from television.
JAKARTA (JP): The history of foreign films' domination over Indonesian ones stretches back as far as the beginning of this century.
The local film industry began with the production of Lutung Kasarung (a film of the legend of Lutung Kasarung) in 1926. Even then, it was faced with the influx of imported films and challenges in the forms of scientific and technological innovations.
In the last five years, from 1990 to 1995, the local film industry, despite its 70 years of existence, is still considered in its infancy.
One general but logical question that has emerged is whether or not the industry can be revived. If so, how long will it take until production rolls again?
Many, particularly those in the film community, had expected 1994 to be a turning point. It turned out that during the entire year, film production only increased from 24 of the previous year, to 33 that year.
Will we be able to push production further in the coming years? It is difficult to predict, particularly given the fact that, up to the writing of this article, only one single movie, Cemeng 2005 (The Last Prima Donna), by N. Riantiarno, has been produced this year. This film was funded by the National Film Council.
This is not the first time our national film production hit a low. Domestic film production reached its peak in 1976 with 124 films.
The peak output was always followed by a slowdown. In some cases, the slowdown was steep; in others, there were fluctuations with figures that were still within encouraging ranges. A number of factors were responsible for these fluctuations, some stemming from the problems inherent to the film industry, some caused by more general conditions.
Theater contribution
The first production of 1926 was followed by the growth in the local drama or theater world, which from time to time gave birth to talented and capable casts who would later on step into the national film arena. This happened when production was revitalized in 1948 -- after a long period of inactivity that followed the first boom in 1941.
During the subsequent period of 1976-1990, besides artists, the most capable film directors also came from theater groups. Among them we had names such as Teguh Karya and Slamet Rahardjo of Teater Populer, Arifin C. Noer of Teater Kecil, Putu Wijaya of Teater Mandiri, and newcomer Nano Riantiarno of Teater Koma.
Even our Father of National Film, Usmar Ismail, started his career in the theatrical world by joining the theater group Maya, or Seniman Merdeka, together with Rosihan Anwar; he later became a student of Dr. Huyung, also known as Hinatsu Eitaro, a Japanese film figure of the Nippon Eiga-sha.
Between 1945 and 1950, Usmar Ismail was also a student of local screenwriter and dramatist Andjar Asmara and R. M. Soetarto, a local film figure of Berita Filem Indonesia. Soetarto represented Indonesia in the hand over of Nippon Eiga-sha from the Japanese government to the Indonesian government, following Indonesia's independence in 1945.
Another pioneer of Indonesian films, Djamaludin Malik, once financed the staging of the plays Pantjawarna (Five Colors) and Bintang Timoer (Eastern Star). Other prominent figures in our national film industry, Djadug Djajakusuma and Suryosumanto, were also students of Dr. Huyung at Lingkaran Studi. Many say that Lingkaran Studi later evolved into Kino Drama Atelier (KDA), claiming to be the first formal school for the film community in Indonesia.
Impact of war
World War II was a global force that slowly but surely took its toll on the film industry in the Dutch Indies. Between 1945 and 1947 not a single film was produced.
One of the driving forces behind the reawakening of the film industry in 1950 was Usmar Ismail. He started his NV Perfini film company -- with the picture of a buffalo as the company logo. He produced a down-to-earth film with very strong Indonesian characters.
Usmar was able to do this because he was enjoying his creative freedom and he was able to take advantage of the political situation at that time. He produced Krisis dan Lagi-lagi Krisis (Crisis and more Crises) when the country built its first public housing in 1955. He also made Tamu Agung (The Great Guest) which tells of Sukarno's incognito's visits to the kampongs.
That year, films that were run in the cinemas consisted of pre-war movies only, that had been re-censored. At that time, as many as 54 domestic films had to compete with 863 imported films, including 660 from the U.S., 76 from China, 57 from England, 13 from France, and 12 from India.
Usmar wanted to break through the American film distribution in first-class cinemas controlled by the American Motion Picture Association in Indonesia (AMPAI). Meskin, owner of the Metropole cinema in Central Jakarta, told him that there was no place for Indonesian films in number one cinemas. Usmar insisted that Meskin show his film at Metropole, shouting at him: "I'm an American graduate!"
Meskin gave in to Usmar's demand and the result was startling. Usmar's Krisis managed to stay for nine consecutive days!
The aborted Sept. 30 communist coup (G-30-S/PKI), caused another slow period that lasted for five years, from 1965 to 1970. This was the slowdown that followed the peak of 1955.
The year 1955 marked the first Indonesian Film Festival (FFI), which was considered as a driving factor for booms in the film industry. FFI also played a major role in energizing the film industry during the period of 1974 to 1990.
Trade war
If international trade wars -- including the one between Indonesia and the U.S. -- could be viewed as a form of modern war, then it was another war that destroyed the world of Indonesian film during the period of 1990 - 1995.
The U.S. insisted that Indonesia eliminate nine items from its film distribution regulations, including film quota and the obligatory screening of Indonesian films.
The impact of the war was also amplified by the emergence of a number of television stations, which were the manifestation of innovation in science and technology.
Generally, an innovation such as this one is bound to affect the film industry strongly. It started with the birth of RCTI, followed by TPI, SCTV, ANteve, and Indosiar. We can add to all of these the newly started cable television network Indovision.
The establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) early this year was just an early sign of the end to the economic war, as this international body has yet to equip itself with the mechanism for settling trade disputes between its member countries.
Consequences
Indonesia has to fulfill a lot of obligations as the result of its signing the treaty of the WTO establishment. One of the things that has come under repeated attacks from the Motion Picture Export Association of America (MPEAA) is Indonesia's quota for imported films, that restricts the number of films, to be imported to 160 per year.
Meanwhile, the regulation that governs the Indonesian film industry, Law No. 8/1992 with all its implementations and technical directives, can be regarded as sufficiently comprehensive. It brings fresh hope in the form of deregulation, including the lifting of the requirement to obtain production permits. However, the U.S. still believes that this law is not in line with the free trade spirit, since it still shuts the window of opportunity for foreign investment in the film industry.
Another problem, as admitted by the chairman of Indonesian Film Enterprises Association, Turino Djunaedi, is the difficulty faced by the film producers in obtaining capable casts for films, as well as production crew, because most of them have been absorbed by the fast-growing television film industry.
All of the above, augmented by other factors, particularly internal factors, such as the lack of scenario and script writers, domination of imported films, and the rapid growth of television stations, which take away a healthy portion of viewers from Indonesian films, takes us to the conclusion that it will be at least a few more years before we witness a revival of Indonesian films.
Capital backing
Based on past experience, it seems that not until at least five years from now we will have another boom such as the one we had in the 1976-1990 era. This will happen only if we do our homework. For example, we need to establish the bank of scripts and the film financing corporation, as conceived by the leaders of Indonesian film industry when they formulated the Basic Framework for Development of National Film Industry for the DFN (National Film Council) in 1980.
When it comes to financing, the film industry hungers for bank loans. Up to now, bank loans for film production can be secured only on an individual basis, to the producer, with his property used as collateral. The loan is not granted based on the prospect of the film to be produced.
In the eyes of bankers, a film is not yet considered a feasible trade item. The same is true with investors; they still do not view this industry as worthy of investments. A few that do invest their money in the film industry do so because they like films. Their decision is not based on a business calculation or the intention to earn real profits.
Efforts have been made to turn the film industry into a bankable and feasible sector for investment. The latest effort came from the executive chair of the Association of Indonesian Moving Cinema Enterprises (Perfiki), Hidayat Effendi, who demonstrated the potential of bioskop keliling (mobile cinemas) with his concept of Bioskop-17.
With support from the Coordinating Minister of Political Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman, both PT Indosat and PT Telkom have agreed to grant a long-term soft loan to Perfiki to be used for film production. All these films will later be run in Bioskop-17 or in bioskop keliling. However, the soft loan has yet to be disbursed.
Market mechanism
There are multiple, basic, economic factors that insiders in the film industry still cannot make out in their attempt to improve the economics of this industry in Indonesia. Chief among these is the market mechanism of films, which had been set by imported films and was later dominated by film traders. The majority of these traders are Indonesians of Chinese descent.
During its entire history, the film trade has been dominated by those who act as brokers and who claim to represent public tastes. It is often the case that these brokers positively assist film production by injecting funds as the production is still in its early planning stage.
The broker-based trading system, on the one hand, helps bridge the interests of the producers -- most of whom live in Jakarta -- with cinema owners outside Jakarta. On the other hand, it has often been evident that they are the ones who reap the biggest profit, each time a particular movie becomes a hit, not the producer.
When the U.S. government began to threaten with its Special "Super 301" Act of 1990 which gives its the authority take any action against countries suspected of unfair trading practices, these brokers adopted the "wait and see" tactic; they halted their activities, particularly when the film situation worsened as the number of television stations increased, the cable network began operations and parabolic antennas became widespread.
In a nutshell, the Indonesian film community has no control over the film market in Indonesia and they have to rely heavily on the role of brokers.
Short of discussing the market, until now experts in Indonesian film economics have not been able to determine the ideal number of film output per year. The chairman of the Association of Indonesian Movie Theater Owners, H. M. Johan Tjasmadi, made his own calculation, and came up with the figure of 52 films per year.
Should we use this figure as our reference, the period of 1976 to 1991 could be considered the Golden Age of our film industry. During this period, the lowest output level occurred in 1982, and it stood at 52.
At the same time this Golden Age also meant that during that period there was an overproduction that led to a glut, which in turn created a deadlock, and this was one of the major factors leading to the destruction of the film industry in Indonesia.